Spring Street Natural

Spring Street Natural is reliable casual dining in Soho. The food won’t blow your mind, but there are plenty of vegetarian and vegan options, seating is plentiful, and prices are reasonable. I was wary that “natural” in the restaurant’s name stood for macrobiotic dining, but it actually means they aim to serve foods that are “minimally processed” — huzzah for organic carbs.

The grilled vegetable sandwich was indeed chock-full of veggies: grilled portobello mushroom, grilled zucchini, roasted red peppers, fresh mozzarella, and sun-dried tomato pesto.

The grilled free range chicken sandwich was more bread than chicken, but still satisfying. Next time I’m in Soho, I might stop by for lunch again to try their chicken burger.

Spring Street Natural
62 Spring Street (corner of Lafayette)
New York, NY 10012

New York Philharmonic: Le Grand Macabre

Last night I saw György Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre at Lincoln Center. This “anti-anti-opera” is not for easy listening enthusiasts, but the visual production was amazing; puppeteers from Giants Are Small performed live on stage in front of a camera and projected the results in real time — all in sync with the orchestra and singers.

During the exchange below, the live animation provided comic book-style speech bubbles above the performers’ heads (especially helpful since there were no supertitles):

Piet: Ghost Astradamors, are you dead?
Astradamors: Yes.
Piet: Am I dead too?
Astradamors: Yes, ghost Piet.
Piet: Since when?
Astradamors: Since midnight last.
Piet: Sincerest condolences!
Astradamors: Thank you, likewise!

If you ever find yourself dead and conversing with a fellow ghost, I can’t think of a better response to “sincerest condolences!” than “thank you, likewise!”